Optical delay devices are essential elements for all-optical implementation(s) of a wide variety of other optical devices including interferometers, signal delay devices, signal synchronization devices, and optical buffering devices. And while very short optical delays may be readily implemented by providing small changes in an optical path length or small changes to an optical signal propagation speed, longer delays are provided by fiber delays having a large path differences. Such delays typically require from few meters to several kilometers of optical fiber that are difficult to maintain and impossible to integrate into a compact form. Consequently, a compact, variable optical delay device capable of providing both long and short optical delays would represent a significant advance in the art.